"Brick Lane" controversy

As many of your readers will no doubt be aware, there has always been rivalry between Bangladeshis from the peripheral and sparsely-populated Sylhet and those hailing from the major metropolitan areas like Dhaka and Chittagong. Sadly, this is the case amongst the non-resident community as well. Many British Sylhetis are hurt by Chanu's words in the novel dismissively denigrating us through the use of popular stereotypes implying that we are uneducated and cliquish and have a village mentality. Although Ali uses these stereotypes as a plot device in order to show Chanu's pompous and opinionated character, many Sylhetis feel that for the first major literary work centred on British Bangladeshis to dwell so prominently on negative Sylheti attributes will only serve to stigmatise our community. And of course, Sylhetis are fiercely protective of their own language, family-orientated community culture and conservative practice of Islam.

I strongly abhor threats of violence made against any individual or group and I hope that my Sylheti brothers remain at all times within the letter and more importantly, the spirit, of the law in expressing their protests. Yet I find it ironic that Ali is being lauded in some liberal quarters in Bangladesh for putting the country on the literary world map, when in fact she is fanning rivalries and stereotypes within the British Bangladeshi community through the use of one-dimensional stereotypes which, if they were ever true, certainly are no longer so.

I hope that my fellow Bangladeshis do not judge the literary merits of a book solely by the fact that the author is a Bangladeshi.